early-onset alzheimer’s

Former model and restaurateur Barbara Smith, better known to her fans as B. Smith, has revealed that she has been diagnosed with Alzheimer’s. Smith, 64, has been called “the black Martha Stewart” because of her wide range of home-decor, restaurant and lifestyle enterprises . In 1976 she became one of the first African American models on the cover of Mademoiselle magazine. Ten years later, she opened the first of three B. Smith restaurants: two in New York and one, which …

It’s hard to imagine that a movie about Alzheimer’s could be realistic and uplifting, but A Short History of Decay, by first-time writer/director Michael Maren, manages both. This indy film, arriving in theaters today, explores the ripple effect of the disease on the sufferer’s partner, grown children and friends, all the while encouraging viewers to empathize, laugh and cry. In the end, this is a movie not so much about a devastating illness that affects memory, thinking and behavior, but …